A fourth term Labour Government would protect frontline spending on schools, the NHS and policing, he said.

The pledge to defend the Welsh Assembly Government’s £15bn budget came as the party launched its Welsh manifesto for the general election at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff.

Mr Hain said fair funding, quality jobs, affordable housing and a new literacy pledge were at the top of the agenda.

“The Tories have promised an emergency budget that would introduce savage cuts from day one,” he said.

“We can give a clear commitment that this spend per head will be protected in Wales.”

Labour recognised that spending on health, care and other vital services should be higher in Wales than in England, he said ‘because of our history of industrial illness, deprivation and because of the geographic sparsity of our population’.

The manifesto said that a deal with the Treasury – first announced last November – meant Wales would not lose out under the Barnett formula which determines the size of the devolved budget.

Wales receives on average £114 per head for every person compared to £100 in England.

But experts claim that falls £300m short of comparable English regions every year.

It came among ‘100 promises for Wales’ set out in the manifesto.

Mr Hain said there were 50,000 more public sector workers in Wales with a Labour government than under the Tories.

The spending share for the Assembly Government had more than doubled since 1999.

Welsh Labour leader, Carwyn Jones, said: “The choice at this election is crystal clear. It’s a choice between hope, prosperity and stability that would be delivered by a Labour Government, for all the people of Wales – and the austerity and uncertainty of savage Tory cuts.”

But Plaid’s candidate in Llanelli Myfanwy Davies said later: “For London Labour to mention fair funding for Wales is a surreal state of affairs when you consider that they’ve spent the last decade denying that Wales is being under funded.

“It all smacks of desperation by a party that has let people down and is now finding out how angry they are.”